M33 Triangulum Galaxy

[DSLR AstroMod]

I captured this beautiful target a few nights back - a total of 1hr55mins of exposure in 5 min subs.

Guided with DSI / C9.25@F6.3, imaged through WO 110ED with modded 450D / Astronomik UHC clip.

Some very high thin cloud but seeing good, temp 10C.


http://i32.tinypic.com/w8aidv.jpg

Here is a close crop :

http://i27.tinypic.com/v761lg.jpg

[ady.space]

love the uncropped one ace pic ...aint you a member of the sky at night forum? on there my user name is darkside

[Celestron]

Nice but soft . Probably from the thin high clouds your talking about . They will ruin a shot for sure , i know they have with lots' of mine :( . BTW hope you don't mind but after looking at your image again i notice a slight trailing around the edges . This only means one thing .... Polar Alignment is off . I did that with one of my best shots of the Rose Neb back when i was shooting film . Great shot , just slight trailing at the edges .

[DSLR AstroMod]

love the uncropped one ace pic ...aint you a member of the sky at night forum? on there my user name is darkside

Hi ady yes I am.

[DSLR AstroMod]

BTW hope you don't mind but after looking at your image again i notice a slight trailing around the edges . This only means one thing .... Polar Alignment is off ..

Nope. My polar alignment is pretty good.
This is coma you are seeing.
Firstly my WO 110ED displays a fair bit of it at outer edges of starfield, and I was testing out a WO II 0.8x reducer which was not made for the 110mm.
Double compounded! :)

[jmx]

Nope. My polar alignment is pretty good.
This is coma you are seeing.
Firstly my WO 110ED displays a fair bit of it at outer edges of starfield, and I was testing out a WO II 0.8x reducer which was not made for the 110mm.
Double compounded! :)

This is whats keeping me from swapping from my reflector for a refractor. Are there no coma free scopes for $1500 or less? I really just want a scope that "works".

It seems like you really have to pick a scope that has a specific corrector made for it.

P.S. nice shot. I just did my first shot of this guy this weekend. Strangely looks similar to yours ;) http://jmx.ls1howto.com/pics/m33.jpg btw, mine were just 75sec subs. Cant seem to pull off 5 minute subs with my mount.

[DSLR AstroMod]

This is whats keeping me from swapping from my reflector for a refractor. Are there no coma free scopes for $1500 or less? I really just want a scope that "works".


I guess you have to pay extra for things like coma free ( MPCC or FR/flattener), CA free (ED or APO lenses )....is rather annoying that there's always "something" else we need to buy to get that perfect image.
Software can only clean up and rectify so much in a picture.



P.S. nice shot. I just did my first shot of this guy this weekend. Strangely looks similar to yours ;) http://jmx.ls1howto.com/pics/m33.jpg btw, mine were just 75sec subs. Cant seem to pull off 5 minute subs with my mount.Your looks mighty impressive. You have captured and extracted a load of detail there. Have you tried to pull out some of the reddish colour too. Generally M33 is pictured as a pale pinkish core with lighter blue arms and dust.

I'm autoguiding. Also your skyfog will determine your longest subs. I see ur in LA so I guess w/out a decent LPfilter or Ha filter you'll be struggling to get past a few minutes??
What mount do you have?

[jmx]

I'd more than willingly shell out $300 for an MPCC or FR, but none are made for my scope. Its an issue I dont intend to have again, so I've been searching for a "known good" imaging setup. After 2 weeks of research, I'm nearly just as lost as I was when I started.

Anyway, that shot I posted is with the red boosted a bit. My DSLR is unmodified. However, from what I've seen, the bulk of m33 isnt usually pink. The only pink I've seen in shots is maybe globs or streaks of pink in the arms, and even then its usually only from cameras without filters. I guess I was trying to keep that shot in line with what the human eye might see, and didn't want to go overboard on boosting the red. Maybe I'll try it again once I mod my camera, could be neat to see how different it comes out. Might match yours more closely.

I don't take my shots from Los Angeles. You're right about needing a narrowband filter for decent shots if I were to image from here. Even with a light pollution filter nebulous targets take so long to resolve its a waste of time here. Star clusters are no problem of course. The shots I take are from a vineyard outside of town.

[DSLR AstroMod]

I'd more than willingly shell out $300 for an MPCC or FR, but none are made for my scope. Its an issue I dont intend to have again, so I've been searching for a "known good" imaging setup. After 2 weeks of research, I'm nearly just as lost as I was when I started.


good luck with your search, let me know if your;e successfull I may be interested myself. Of course $1500 isn't a fortune, so AstroGraphs and RCare outta the picture :(



Anyway, that shot I posted is with the red boosted a bit. My DSLR is unmodified. However, from what I've seen, the bulk of m33 isnt usually pink. The only pink I've seen in shots is maybe globs or streaks of pink in the arms, and even then its usually only from cameras without filters. I guess I was trying to keep that shot in line with what the human eye might see, and didn't want to go overboard on boosting the red. Maybe I'll try it again once I mod my camera, could be neat to see how different it comes out. Might match yours more closely.
I guess so. anyway its all down to personal taste and perception.
I might tone down the pink a bit in mine and boost the blue!




I don't take my shots from Los Angeles. You're right about needing a narrowband filter for decent shots if I were to image from here. Even with a light pollution filter nebulous targets take so long to resolve its a waste of time here. Star clusters are no problem of course. The shots I take are from a vineyard outside of town.Have you looked at the Astronomik UHC filter. I have the clip version.
I use it and am really impressed. I've increased my sub lengths from 2 mins to 10+!!

Gr8 at defeating a good deal of LP and also selectively letting through rather narrow band of Ha, OIII and SII.
Fantastic all rounder IMO and underrated.

Green wavelenghts are suppressed, no idea whyhttp://forum.skyatnightmagazine.com/image/s13.gif

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t89/starfighter66/Astronomy/DSLR%20AstroMod/astronomik_uhc.png